In the context of historical research on Italian universities in the modern era, the development of institutions specifically designed for the education of students from foreign countries (the "Universita per Stranieri" of Perugia and Siena) requires deeper investigation and analysis. They embody an original and unusual project of disseminating a national (in some respects a regional) culture to students from overseas, but these aims and the courses they generated raised questions about the institutions' claims to university status. The cultural and educational role of these particular institutions, wrongly considered in the past as of minor significance, is re-evaluated in the light of recent studies based on administrative and teaching files as well as contextual sources. The paper reflects on how these universities developed their teaching activity, developing pedagogical research aimed at foreign students and specialist publications on language teaching. It concerns itself with the role and operation of the Italian "University for Foreigners" of Perugia, its foundation and evolution in relation to the state before and after the Second World War and to the university sector in general, with particular attention to distinctive features and constraints that affected its status as a university. It may be that only since the later twentieth century has the conscious role of transmitting national culture to a foreign clientele been more widely acknowledged as a legitimate function of the university. (Contains 64 footnotes.)